RILLA! Rilla of Ingleside, the musical
by Dylan Lee Arwood
Summary: It certainly has been a while. The new content is chapter 4 sneak preview 2... Enjoy.
1. Act one Scene one

Rilla of Ingleside, The Musical

_We see the front of a well kept Edwardian home, with a lush garden. In the distance, a gunshot sounds and a young woman runs from the house onto the porch with a shocked and frightened look on her face. A storm is brewing and flashes of lightning and booms of thunder occur periodically. Blue lights appear on the audience and slowly ebb closer to the stage and the woman. She stumbles back up the steps in fear, but the watery lights reach her feet. She raises her skirts and sees in horror that they are stained blood red. _

_Gertrude Oliver awakes in her bed with a start and a choked scream. Next to her, Rilla Blythe is slowly waking up and stretching her arms towards the heavens. Sunlight is pouring in the window and we hear the faint twittering of birds. _

**RILLA: spoken **Good morning Miss Oliver!

(song: FIFTEEN, featuring Rilla Blythe and Gertrude Oliver)

** sung **Good morning!

Good morning!

The wonderful fresh day peaks over that hill and gives warning!

It's morning!

**spoken **Oh just taste that sunshine!

**sung ** Oh how I love this shiny new day

An unwrapped present, an alluring bouquet

What joyous capers and larks do await?

What unanticipated meeting or bizarre twist of fate?

Good morning!

What wondrous adventures will this day bring?

Oh how the trees laugh, oh how the birds sing

How good is it to wake from the dark and the dreary?

To find a world _filled_ with the bright and the cheery?

It's morning!

**MISS OLIVER:** **spoken **Credulous fifteen!

**RILLA:** ** sung **Oh fifteen! _Oh fifteen!_

To be a girl of fifteen!

It's obscene! It's a dream!

To be marvelous, _rapturous_ fifteen.

The morning is cloudless, so golden-blue and so right

If I were a poet oh the things I might write

Oh how I could soar if I only had wings

It's morning, oh morning, what beautiful things might this day bring?

**RILLA:** Oh fifteen! _Oh fifteen!_

**MISS OLIVER: spoken **Incorrigible fifteen!

**RILLA: sung ** It's obscene! It's a dream!

To be a girl and to be...

**MISS O: spoken **Naïve...

**RILLA: sung **Irrepressible...

**MISS O: spoken **Gullible...

**RILLA: sung ** Indelible, unbelievable...

**MISS O: **Boisterous...

**MISS O, RILLA: **Fifteen!

**RILLA: spoken **Oh Miss Oliver, I trust you slept well!

I had the most breathtaking dream

**MISS O: **Oh really? Do tell.

**RILLA: sung **I dreamt that my parents let me go to the dance

It was incredibly delectable, oh what a chance!

You should have seen the dress I did wear

And I put a filet of roses in my hair

The weather was divine, not hotter nor colder

If only it might be... If only I were older.

If only I were...

Fifteen, Oh fifteen

If I were a girl of fifteen

Awesome in between Queen

If only I weren't

Humiliating

Patronizing

Detesable

Fourteen

**MISS O: spoken ** is it better to be disappointed to find your good dream was fake

Or to have a nightmare and be sick with relief upon your awake

My dear Rilla, I too had a dream

One so vivid and frightening, so real it seemed

It was frightfully vivid; I heard a gun sound and a crowd

I rushed to the porch and saw lightning and cloud

The dark sea ebbed towards where I stood in the mud

I pulled my skirts from it's forked tongue, they were drenched in _blood_

I never thought that the would have come close to here

But come steadily they did and with them, death and fear

**RILLA:** I hope it doesn't mean that there is a storm coming to ruin the party for everyone else!

**MISS O: **Impossible!

**RILLA: ** **sung **Promising!

**MISS O: **Stubborn!

**RILLA: **Persevering

**MISS O, RILLA: **Incurable, lively, incorrigible...

**SUSAN BAKER: spoken **Marilla Bertha Blythe! Your father would like a word with you.

**RILLA: **Coming Thuthan!

_Exit Rilla_

**MISS O:** ** sung **Fragile, breakable, blind and vunerable, Fifteen.

**spoken **Oh what could it mean!


	2. Act one Scene two

**Rilla of Ingleside, The Musical- Act one, Scene 2**

_Rilla flies down the stairs into the Ingleside parlor/kitchen. Susan is working in the kitchen, Nan and Di are helping her, Shirley is lounging on the couch, Walter is scribbling something on paper at the table, Jem is playing with Dog Monday and Anne and Gilbert are sitting at chairs, center stage._

**GILBERT: **Rilla, come here for a moment please.

**RILLA: **Yes father?

**GILBERT: **Your mother and I have decided...

**RILLA:**...Yes?

**GILBERT: **Ahem...that you may go to the dance at the light this evening.

**RILLA: **Oh! Thank you! Thank you! I promise to behave myself and to dress warmly.

**ANNE: **It was Walter who convinced us. He thought you ought to go dear.

**RILLA: **Walter you're too good to me! This is the single _greatest _thing that has _ever_ happened to me. But what will I wear?

**NAN: **We're walking to the dock, and then rowing over to the lighthouse by boat. I suggest you hurry and get dressed quick so that we're not late meeting up with the crowd from the manse.

**RILLA: **Yeth, of couthe. _Rilla dashes up the stairs_Miss Oliver! You'll never guess where I am going!

_Everyone gets up and leaves in different directions, except for Anne and Susan._

**SUSAN: **I do trust your better judgment Mrs. Doctor dear, but I am not altogether certain about allowing Rilla to go to this dance. She's a child yet.

**ANNE: **Why Susan, Rilla is almost fifteen years old!

**SUSAN: **Oh I know, but she's always been the baby Mrs. Doctor dear. I don't want her rushing off to parties and dances and whatnot unless she absolutely has to. Cousin Sophia told me once about a girl who dropped dead while dancing at a party over the harbor. "I couldn't wish for no better sign from providence than that" she says. You...You don't think it's true do you?

**ANNE: **I've never heard of such a story Susan. But Rilla is a healthy young girl and I don't think there's any danger of her dropping dead tonight.

**SUSAN: **There's a cool breeze blowing off the water and the girls these days are wearing such skimpy dresses. She could catch pneumonia and Lord knows what else.

**ANNE: **She'll... She'll wear a scarf.

**SUSAN: **And all the sweet hearting that goes on...I don't believe it's fitting for those little babies and their playmates to gad about hand in hand with those dastardly sheep eyes. No, no, no, it's not proper. What with Jem and Faith-

**ANNE: **Jem and Faith...Don't be ridiculous... Jem is twenty one and Faith is eighteen. It's hard to believe but, they are young adults now Susan. We have to face the music.

**SUSAN: **But Rilla is still only a girl we ought to keep her that way for as long as we can

**ANNE: **I suppose, they all have to leave the nest, or they'll never learn to fly. It is after all, only one party. The events of one party can't take her away from us altogether.

_The stage darkens so that there is just one spotlight on Anne._

**(song: "THE SANDS OF TIME", featuring: Anne and the children of Rainbow Valley)**

**ANNE: **In this life we are never in the moment

It's only memories of the past, and hopes for what's to come

It seems the laughter flies by and we are left in bittersweet lament

For the time badly spent and then the things we can't prevent

And we mourn the happiness left behind, but soon we all succumb

And now looking back I see that I wouldn't change anything

And as for what the future may yet bring

I see that I can't know

All I know is that I must let go

Of the...

_Another spotlight fades in and shines on a group of children playing in Rainbow Valley _

Gurgling laughter bubbling up over the hill

And the sounds of joy ringing loud and sounding clear

And the ghosts of rainbows, that haunt and linger still

Of their hopeful dreams and their childish wide eyed fear

Of sleepy green heads and nursery rhymes

As I stand here helplessly and the wind blows passed, the sands of time.

Ooh,ooh,ooh,ooh,oh,oh,ooo

I am left abandoned like, I was abandoned once before

They leave me standing shell-shocked by the open door

And the ghosts of rainbows that haunt and linger still

What will become of them, is around that bend over that hill

It's out of my hands, but not a victimless crime

This ever drifting whirlwind of, the sands of time.

_The light dims on the children and then slowly on Anne as well. Then a small spotlight fades in on center stage then blossoms to light up the entire stage, showing the Blythes, the Merediths, Miss Oliver, Joe Milgrave, Miranda Pryor, Mary Vance and Miller Douglas walking towards a dock where a few boats are tied. _

**(song: "JUST ANOTHER NIGHT AT THE LIGHT", featuring: the youth of Glen St. Mary, plus Kenneth Ford and Miss Oliver)**

**MEN: **_humming tune of chorus _

_Women join in_

**WOMEN: **_"la la's" to the tune of chorus _

**RILLA: **This would be lovely if I did not feel so out of place

My heart is race-ing, my mind is pace-ing

And I might be face-ing

A stint as a wallflower, I shouldn't have come

My feet are numb

I shouldn't have come

**WOMEN: **_la la's _

**MISS OLIVER: **If only Robert my love and my dear were here

What am I doing here?

I am too old, my heart is to cold

I've no one to talk to, I'll be so alone

I shouldn't be here

_Everyone piles into the boats. Una is left out and Walter gestures for her to come into his boat. They sit across from each other. They all begin rowing and a lighthouse appears in the distance, steadily growing._

**UNA: **Though the night was chilled right from the start

I've this strange feeling in the pit of my heart

That I was not shivering when we were apart

If only I could be sure his eyes were saying what they are seeming

That I am not only dreaming

That my keen oversize feelings

Would forever be invisible, forever go unseen.

**WOMEN: **_la la's-steadily regaining speed until original tempo is achieved _

_They all get out of their boats onto a crowded lawn around the lighthouse, where a fiddler is playing along to the tune and couples are dancing or sitting by the water. They all join in, and pair off in their respective couples. Rilla is left alone wandering through the crowd expectantly. _

**ALL: **Whirling, swirling, twirling through life

Oh the joy and the richness and laughter is rife

When you're among friends whose hope and zest is inane

Live and subsist is the only rule of this game

We know and we go with the flow and it goes

And it's bright and it's right and we almost take flight

Just another night at the light

Just another night at the light

Just another night at the light

Just another night at the light

**WOMEN: **_la la's-decrescendo _

_The fiddler continues to play and Rilla pads up the stone stairs leading to the light grumpily. She sits down in a huff with her chin resting on her hand. Kenneth Ford approaches her and extends his hand, helping her up. She gazes into his eyes and is on her tippy-toes._

**KENNETH: **Is this Rilla-my-Rilla?

**RILLA: **Yeth. _looks furious with herself _

**KENNETH: **Can we have a dance?

**RILLA: **Yes!

**WOMEN: **_la la's-crescendo _

**ALL: **Whirling, swirling, twirling through life

Oh the joy and the richness and laughter is rife

When you're among friends whose hope and zest is inane

Live and subsist is the only rule of this game

We know and we go with the flow and it goes

And it's bright and it's right and we almost take flight

Just another night at the light

Just another night at the light

Just another night at the light

Just another night at the-

_Everything stops simultaneously, the music, the singing, the dancing; when Jack Elliot rushes in. Everyone stares. _

**JACK: **Britain declared war on Germany. It's all over the news. They are calling for volunteers starting tomorrow.

_Slowly the rumble of male voices crescendos, the girls all look around confusedly, except Miss Oliver._

**MISS OLIVER: **Is this Armageddon?

**(song: "THE PIPER PIPES" featuring all the men at the party)**

**MEN: **The piper pipes and we hear his song

Take up your courage and arms boys and follow along

The piper pipes so we'll follow to the ends of the earth

To show our valor, our pluck and prove our worth

**JEM: **Hurrah for mother Britain, we'll fight for her cause

**KENNETH: **We'll have some adventures and come home to applause

**JERRY: **The war will be over in a month or so

**MEN: **Once we take up our quarrel, with the foe

_All the men walk offstage, marching like soldiers. Except Walter, who hangs back in the shadows. The women are left bewildered and alone._

**MARY: **What a fuss to make about nothing... _shakily _

**FAITH: **It will be over before they get a chance to fight. _shakily again _

**RILLA: **It can't possibly matter to us in Canada. Can it?

**WALTER: **Before this war is over, every man, woman and child in Canada will feel it. You will feel it, feel it to your hearts core. You will weep tears of blood over it. The piper has come and he will pipe until every corner of the world has heard his awful and irresistible music. This war is a death grapple, both sides go in to conquer or die. It will be years before the dance of death is over and in those years millions of hearts will break.

_Walter shakes his head and looks around confusedly as though the words he spoke had not been his. He too walks off and the girls look around them. Through the silence, distantly we can hear the sound of a piper playing a haunting tune. The tune desists and the light on the lighthouse goes out. _

**Disclaimer: These characters, their world and the series of events belong to Lucy Maude Montgomery's imagination. Some words are her own because they could not be improved upon. Thank you.**


	3. Sneak preview 1

**RILLA!-The Musical, Sneak preview 1**

_Anne, Susan and Rilla, who is feeding Jims, are all sitting in the kitchen when Gilbert walks in._

**GILBERT **_(while retrieving a slice of pie from the pantry) _Kenneth Ford is over the harbour. His regiment got held up in Kingsport for some reason and he's gotten leave to come over to the Island.

_Rilla drops Jims' spoon. And then stoops to pick it up keeping her eyes on her father._

**ANNE: **I hope he gets a chance to come over here to see us!

_Rilla fixes her hair absently_

**GILBERT: **I believe he only has a day or two.

_Gilbert wanders into his office. Susan retreats upstairs. Anne kisses Jims on the head and exits the stage._

**RILLA **_(v/o)_I wonder if Ken will come and see me before he goes overseas. _Us_ I mean!...see _us _before he goes away. Of course it's only natural if he does come, to make a farewell call here at Ingleside where he has so often been a guest. He has probably forgotten all about that night at the light. Not that I've held it in my memory or anything! He has probably forgotten all about me too...

_(Wistfully)_

He must look so handsome in his khaki...

_Shakes head furiously_

He hasn't even spoken to me for such a long time! He _has _forgotten about me! Perhaps there are even...Other girls in Toronto. Of course there are. I am nothing but the foolish little sister of Jem and Walter to him. Oh what a goose I am!

_Jim begins to cry and reach out for his spoon which is hovering in the air before his face in Rilla's motionless hand. She begins to feed him distractedly at a rapid pace._

But then he was so sweet to me at the dance... No! I will _not_ think of him anymore! If he comes well then that's all well and good, and if he doesn't... If he doesn't, so be it! It does not matter in the slightest to me! Not in the slightest!

_She puts down Jims' spoon violently when the phone rings. She trudges over to pick it up and Jims begins to wail._

**KENNETH: **_(v/o)_Is this Ingleside?

**RILLA: **Yes.

**KENNETH: **That you Rilla?

**RILLA: **Yeth-yeth.

_Rilla turns around and glares at Jims, he stops crying; understanding, as babies do, the vitality of certain situations._

**KENNETH: **Know who's speaking?

_Rilla momentarily cups her palm over the receiver and inhales and exhales slowly, closing her eyes solemnly._

**RILLA:** It's Ken-isn't it?

**KENNETH: **Sure thing. I am here for a look-in. May I come up to Ingleside tonight and see you?

**RILLA: **Of-of couthe

**KENNETH: **See here Rilla, can you arrange that there won't be more than a few dozen people around? Understand? I can't make my meaning any clearer just now, there are about a dozen receivers down.

**RILLA: **I'll try

**KENNETH: **I'll be up there about eight then, bye bye.

_Rilla hangs up the phone and dances over to Jims, lifts him out of his chair and begins twirling him around in the air._

**RILLA: **Did you hear that Jims? He's coming to see us!

_Rilla begins to waltz around the floor with Jims in her arms as the music starts..._

**(song: My Dream Castle, featuring Rilla Blythe)**

**sung ** My dream castle is being built up from the ground

With turrets and a drawbridge and a moat all around

And everyone in the surround-ing area

Will gasp and agree, oh my, oh me

'It's no wonder 'e married 'er!'

Everyday he'll run home through the door

No more rations and no more war

He'll run to my open arms

A farewell to farms

We'll live on a hill, with a grove

Of evergreen trees

And ever blossoming flowers of mauve

I'll even dress like a queen

In gold and greens

He'll say those colors suit me

And everything will be as it should be

No matter, no hassle

In my dream castle!

And no children!

_Looks reproachfully at Jims._

Well maybe some kids

2-no-3 children of Ford

1 girl and...two boys

there'll be

Walter

Ken Jr.

And sweet little Joy

And we'll spend the time cheery

And whenever we're weary

We've simply to soak up more dreams!

What a wonder it seems

And it's all laid before me on this here night

Everything, I just know, shall go right

A romance unfurled

And then I'll be on top of the world!

_She dances with Jims in her arms up the stairs, the lights dim on the living room and then fade in on Rilla's room upstairs. She enters the room. _

The dogs's tails will wag

And I'll never nag

Every pillow will have a tassel

Because it's my dream castle

It's my-

_She lays Jims down in his crib beside her bed. _

** spoken : **Jims... don't look at me so. I know what you're thinking. But maybe you're right.. Maybe that's not what he meant at all. Maybe he simply meant that he didn't want crowds of people around. Oh Rilla Blythe what a fool, what a fool you've been!

** sung **And everything vanishes in a puff of smoke

_Rilla sinks into the couch_

I'm no one's sweetheart, I'm just a joke!

The Belgians are still starved

My path is still carved

Into old maidenhood

I can do no good

Our boys are still far away from here

Everything I've feared

Is true

And my dream castle has...

Disappeared

_Mr. Hyde growls at her from the floor_

** spoken : **Oh shoo!

_She aims a kick and misses as the cat runs offstage  
_

_The doorbell rings. Rilla clears her throat, straightens her dress and pats down her hair, then she walks nobly to the stairs and offstage. _

**Disclaimer: These characters, their world and the series of events belong to Lucy Maude Montgomery's imagination. Some words are her own because I could not find it in myself to change them. Thanks**


	4. Sneak preview 2

**RILLA-The Musical, Sneak preview 2**

_The curtain opens on the street in front of a building at Redmond. Men in khaki and various students are gathered around a group of women who are rallying for enlistment. Walter enters and blanches, he looks for a way to escape but a boy grabs his arm and steers him forcefully to the front of the stage._

**WALTER: **Good morning Dan

**DAN: **It is a good morning Walter

**WALTER: **It is?

**DAN: **Didn't you hear?

**WALTER: **Hear what?

**DAN: **I've joined up!

**WALTER: **_unenthusiastically_Oh! That's great.

**DAN: **Yes, thank you. I'll be in khaki within a week and I'll be in Valcartier by the end of the month.

**WALTER: **That's nice.

**DAN: **Hard to believe isn't it? Just a few years ago we were playing soldier on the playground and now we're all playing soldier overseas.

_He mimes jabbing a bayonet into Walter._

**WALTER: **Yes I suppose it is.

**DAN: **Remember we all used to make fun of you and call you a sissy because you wouldn't join in the fun?

**WALTER: **Yes. How could I forget?

**DAN: **And then you got so mad at me for teasing Faith Meredith and you tried to beat me up.

**WALTER: **Tried?

**DAN: **Well, anyways, I better be off. I'll see you before I go overseas though, wouldn't want to leave without saying goodbye.

**WALTER: **Yes, I'll see you later Dan.

**DAN: **Say, why haven't you enlisted yet Walt? I knew there was some trouble with the typhoid but surely you're better by now.

**WALTER: **Well, you know. I-

_A crowd surrounds Dan and sweeps him away. Meanwhile Walter remains alienated in the front corner of the stage. _

**DAN: **Goodbye Walter!

_The people around the stage begin to join in a chorus of 'Dixie is Dixie Once More' which is started by a group of school children on the platform, and steadily the crowd joins in, several are waving Union Jacks. _

**CHORUS: "**There'll be happy days in Dixie

Happy days and night

All our boys are back once more

Celebrating 'cause they won the war

Soon again you'll hear them singin'

'round that cabin door

Old Alexander's got his ragtime band

Where he belongs, in dear old Dixieland

There'll be happy days in Dixie

'cause Dixie is Dixie once more_" _

_Walter watches them all singing and does not applaud when they are done like everyone else. _

**(song: "SOMETHINGS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR", featuring Townspeople chorus, Walter, Rilla and Una)**

**WALTER: **What a cause for celebration

In blunt, an overseas mutilation

_He makes to turn away but a woman grabs his shoulder_

**WOMAN 1: **Yet it fills us all in such elation!

_Walter looks at the children on stage and the cheering crowd._

**WALTER: **A hypnotized glory blind population

_Another Woman from the crowd joins Woman 1._

**WOMAN 2: **And you son... what's the hesitation?

**WOMAN 1: **Why aren't you fulfilling your obligation?

**WOMAN 2: **What's your reservation?

_A man steps out from the crowd and shakes his finger at Walter reproachfully_

**MAN 1: **Procrastination

**WOMAN 1: **Relaxation

_A few boys in Khaki gather around Walter as well, and point at him accusingly. _

**BOYS: **Collaboration!

**WOMAN 1: **Here's some motivation!

_Three more people from the crowd turn around and look at Water: _

**WOMAN 3, WOMAN 4, MAN 2 : **The annihilation

_Another three turn around and look at him. _

**WOMAN 5, MAN 3, MAN 4: **The termination

**BOYS: **Of our nation

_All the others simultaneously turn their heads and circle around him, he is shifted to center stage as they surround him. _

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **Of your generation

**WALTER: **Again and again they say it

I've heard it so many times

Get in the army son

Fall into line

A hypnotized glory blind entire nation

Cause for celebration

And Conversation

I need an explanation for this fascination!

_He breaks away from the crowd and walks down the street, the spotlight follows him and most of the crowd drifts off stage and the rest go about their business, occasionally glancing at him. Walter looks around furtively._

**WALTER: **Slacker

Sissy

Coward, they say

In every which way

They say

Just a yellow-bellied

Good for naught

They say

Dastardly

Disgrace

Able-bodied man they say

What's the big delay?

They say

Just another lazy

Don't do what he ought

They say...

_Some of the crowd reappears and surrounds Walter again. _

**WOMAN 1,2,3 MAN 1,2: **Obligation!

Take up your arms, and off to war!

Sail to Mother Britain, lads

Adventure waits on her shores

The merciless villain

Would slaughter us civilians

We implore!

'Cause some things are worth fighting for

Domination!

_The lights fade except for one on Walter, and then one appears opposite on Rilla who is at home, and looking distraught. She puts aside a letter she is reading and takes the envelope. She shakes it and a single white feather falls out gracefully to the floor. Meanwhile Walter is bending over a patch of flowers. _

**RILLA: **He sees the breezes blow through the trees

And he sees the moon beam across the seas

And he sees the beauty

And he sees the peace

_Suddenly Woman 4 appears at her side. _

**WOMAN 4: **But it's only his duty

**RILLA: **Oh when will this cease

_Man 4 appears at her other. _

**MAN 4: **Ten years in the least

_Rilla tosses the letter to the ground and walks offstage. Some townspeople reappear and harass Walter by pushing him and pinning a white feather on him. _

**WOMAN 4,5, MAN 3,4: **How can you abandon your comrades?

How can you ignore?

What would you tell your children?

When they ask for stories

About the war

You know son, some things are worth fighting for

Preservation!

_They all run offstage together._

**WALTER: **Canada

Khaki

Com'on, they say

Keep them at bay

They say

Do your part

Overseas

Join up

Please

They say

Get up

Off your knees

They say

Be brave

Though you go to your grave

Be brave!

For the good of your country

For your families

Don't deprave

They say

_All the members of the crowd in the beginning reappear, some from behind objects on the stage. _

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **Annihilation!

Defend your country, like heroes of yore

Who's hands are missing?

Are they yours?

Get up out of bed

Avenge the dead

Make life go back to what it was before!

'Cause some things are worth fighting for

_Rilla appears on the opposite side of the stage as before, off to the side. The townspeople go about harassing Walter with increasing violence. _

**RILLA: **_desperately and angrily _He sees the unsteady grit of a newly born foal

The crimson of the poppy the black of the coal

He has a beautiful mind

A beautiful soul

And I'm afraid, _I'm afraid_ he won't come back quite whole

And who will console us?

_Man 3 and Woman 5 look up and everyone else except them and Rilla, are suspended in tableau. _

**MAN 3: **At least the Germans won't control us!

**WOMAN 5: **And his valor will extol us!

_Rilla walks off and the tableau unfreezes. The townspeople make a semicircle around Walter and they all point at him as he slowly rotates. _

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **Show some courage

They need your help!

Don't mind the gore

You know some things are worth fighting for

Son, do your bit!

Bayoneting babies?

Don't permit!

Protect your family!

Protect our shores!

End the war!

Because don't you know that

Some things...

**WALTER: **I just can't-

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **FREELOADER!

**WALTER: **Let me be-

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **COWARD!

**WALTER: **It's not right!-

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **SLACKER!

**WALTER: **I-

**WOMAN 1: **Oh hear him talk!

_Rilla appears on the opposite side of the stage to previously along with Una who she is confiding in. _

**RILLA: **My dearest brother

**WALTER: **Can't-

**MAN 1: **And it's for naught

**RILLA: **Think of our mother

**WALTER: **Bear-

**WOMAN 2: **Thinks he's some big shot

**RILLA: **There are so many others

**WALTER: **To-

**MAN 2: **Freedom can be bought

**RILLA: **With lives...

**WALTER: **See-

**WOMAN 3: **If only he thought

**RILLA: **With guns and knives

And tears and lives...

**WALTER: **Such-

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **He can be taught!

_Una stands up and starts wringing her hands. Except for her and Walter, everyone else is in tableau. Rilla's face is in her hands. And Una looks right at Walter as he starts to sing. _

**WALTER: **We're all somebody's son

We're all somebody's son

Even the Huns

We're all somebody's son

A mother's heart breaks by a gun

Everytime, everytime a battle is won

_He looks back at her for a moment, and then the spell of the tableau is broken. Everyone is unfrozen and Walter and Una look away. _

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **Hesitation!

_A young boy walks onto the side stage and everyone looks up when he speaks. Una and Rilla exit quietly. _

**NEWSPAPER BOY: **Extra, extra. Read all about it. The Lusitania is sunk by German torpedo. Hundreds dead.

_The newspaper boy exits. Walter blanches and looks at his feet. He seems to be weighing something carefully in his mind, with great difficulty. The townspeople are distracted momentarily and look about at eachother. _

**WOMAN 4: **Oh indeed!

**MAN 3: **How terrible!

**WOMAN 5: **I do hope there weren't any children!

_The boys look back at Walter_

**BOYS:** And to think, some people can sleep at night

_The townspeople look at him too _

**TOWNSPEOPLE: **Without knowing, seeing, fighting the fight

_They usher Walter to an enlistment booth and he stumbles, seeming lost somewhat. _

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **You don't want this on your conscience

The suffering, the dead, the sick, the poor

Think of them

Think of us

Think of your family

Think of the children!

We implore!

You know...

_A pen is pushed into his hand and he signs the shoved in his face. _

**BOYS + SEVERAL DISEMBODIED VOICES: **The piper pipes and it's off to war

**TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: **Some things are worth fighting... killing... dying...For!

_The song ends abruptly and the stage goes black. _

* * *

_Dixie is Dixie once more_, written by Turner and Kard- recorded 1919 by Noble Sissle 


	5. Sneak preview 3

**RILLA- The Musical, Sneak preview 3**

_We open on the kitchen and living room of Ingleside. Susan is chopping up carrots, Anne is knitting a shirt and Rilla is rocking the baby. Slowly we see more women of Glen St. Mary filter into the room. Miss Cornelia comes and begins darning socks. Miss Oliver descends the stairs and starts pacing the floor. Mary Vance appears, opens a book and begins turning the pages. Nan enters the back door and starts sweeping the floor. Rosemary enters and begins packing mess kits. Faith enters the front door and starts taping the floor with her foot. Una comes in and washes the dishes. Di enters and starts scratching out a letter. The combined rhythm of their chores mesh together and slowly becomes one steady beat. Music fades in._

**(song: "WAITING" AS THE "THE PIPER PIPES REPRISE", featuring male and female and choruses excluding Dr. Blythe, Shirley and Mr. Meredith WOMEN: Rilla, Anne, Una, Miranda, Faith, Nan, Di, Susan, Mary Vance, Rosemary, Miss Oliver and extras-MEN: Jem, Walter, Carl, Jerry, Joe, Kenneth Robert and extras)**

**WOMEN: sung **Waiting, waiting...

**MARY VANCE:** Day after day

**UNA:** Endless night after night

**WOMEN:** Waiting, waiting...

**ANNE:** For our dear boys to come home from the fight

**WOMEN:** Waiting, waiting...

**FAITH:** Month after month

**NAN:** Enduring year after year

**WOMEN:** Waiting, waiting...

**RILLA:**To think that the best years of my life should be wasted away in torment and fear

**SUSAN:** Have patience my dear

**WOMEN:** Waiting, waiting...

**MISS OLIVER:** An agony as unbearable as this European strife

**WOMEN:** Waiting, waiting

**RILLA:** **spoken **They only give themselves! We give_ them!_

**WOMEN: sung **We...

**ANNE:** Mothers...

**DI:** Sisters...

**RILLA:** Sweethearts...

**MISS OLIVER:** And wives

**WOMEN:** Waiting, waiting...

**MISS CORNELIA:** Somehow we cope

**WOMEN:** Waiting, waiting...

We'll never lose hope

**WOMEN:** Waiting, waiting...

Be strong, not a tear, dear

Waiting, waiting...

The end must be near

_The light dims on the women and then opens on a group of boys in khaki who are marching in rank with their guns over their shoulders. _

**MEN: **The piper pipes and we hear his call

**JEM:** So we go to our graves, our demise and our fall

**MEN:** The piper has piped us to this fated fight

**KEN:** To take one for our country

**WALTER:** 'Till we are taken by night

**MEN:** The piper still pipes and we follow him still

**JERRY:** O'er treacherous mountain, moor, river and hill

**MEN:** The piper has piped and we answer his call

**CARL:** We are gone, out of sight if we're going at all

_The women march out from the wings and meet the men on center stage; they continue to do their previous tasks while marching in a rank like the soldiers. _

**WOMEN:** But not out of mind!

Waiting, waiting...

For sooner or later the dawn must break

Waiting, waiting...

Wondering who's life this war must next take

**MISS OLIVER:** Ohh!

**MEN:** The piper pipes a flame of courage 'to our minds

We go fight for a cause that's unclear and unkind

The piper pipes in tune to our dance of death

But still we go on, till we breathe our last breath

**WOMEN:** Mothers

Sisters

Sweethearts

And Wives!

**ALL:** Paying in blood and tears and lives

**MEN:** Brothers

Husbands

Friends

Fathers

And beaux

**ALL: **When we will see them again, only heaven will know

**MEN:** The piper pipes, I may never return

**WOMEN:** Waiting, hating, heart is breaking

**MEN:** I go cause I have to, or rot and burn

**WOMEN:** Oh we wait and we wait and we leave it to fate

**MEN:** The piper pipes, it's you we defend

**WOMEN:** You've left us behind, disappeared round a bend.

**ALL:** Just until the dawn breaks, until the-

_A gunshot sounds and Private Walter Blythe falls down dead, out of rank. The rest of the cast is frozen in action. The light dims except for a red floodlight on Walter's body. That too is dimmed and we are plunged into darkness._

**ALL: **...END.

_Dog Monday lets out a haunting howl that echoes and fades slowly. The lights all come back on again and we open on the Ingleside kitchen. The telephone rings and Rilla steps lightly towards it and then picks up the receiver. A loud booming voice announces: "We regret to inform you that Private Walter Blythe was killed in action." A white light appears on the opposite side of the stage, shining on a white cross with poppies swaying at its base. Rilla lets out a cry and crumples to a heap on the floor dropping the receiver and letting it swing by its wire. Both lights fade and the scene closes. _


End file.
